diff --git a/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml b/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml
index 6d3a174..033bae7 100644
--- a/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml
@@ -31,8 +31,10 @@ requirements:
 
 test:
     commands:
+      - pip check
       - pytest -v --pyargs mkl_fft
     requires:
+      - pip
       - pytest
       - scipy >=1.10
       - mkl-service
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index a17d776..fda3e40 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ classifiers = [
   "Operating System :: POSIX",
   "Operating System :: Unix"
 ]
-dependencies = ["numpy>=1.26.4", "mkl"]
+dependencies = ["numpy>=1.26.4"]
 description = "MKL-based FFT transforms for NumPy arrays"
 dynamic = ["version"]
 keywords = ["DFTI", "FFT", "Fourier", "MKL"]